Chains really didn't work for me.

An Easter of Stone-Moving

If you were trapped behind a large stone and all you had was a feather with which to free yourself, what would you be an hour later?

Trapped.

A day later, a week later – it doesn’t matter. The tool isn’t right for the job. It’s powerless.

And that’s what every form of external, self-driven righteousness is. Powerless.

Good works? Powerless. Obedience to the Law of God? Powerless. Religious observances? Powerless.

The rock of God’s righteous requirements can only do one thing – teach us how impotent we truly are. So that we are finally ready for an all-powerful Savior.

But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.So then, the law was our tutor until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. (Galatians 3:22-25).

If you are feeling the futility of self-driven righteousness – if you sense that the feather of your efforts cannot possibly be equal to the weight of your sins – then you are in the right place. You are being “tutored” by the Law so that you despair of anything less than the gift of God, a righteousness earned and granted by another. You are learning that feathers do not move rocks.

Only when we finally give up on our own efforts at righteousness do we cry out for the righteousness of another, one who imparts His salvation by faith alone.

The dead and the powerless do not move stones. They are imprisoned in impotence.

Jesus, having absorbed our sins through death on a cross of judgment, burst out of a rock-sealed tomb on the third day. Death-overcomer? Stone-mover? That’s the Savior I need.

He is willing and able to move your stone, your spiritual death and powerlessness, as well.

2 Responses

Thank you Steve. Powerful! The last four paragraphs I am going to try to commit to memory they touched me deeply.

Always I have known and meditated on the Power of the Cross and what Jesus did for us on the Cross. The words from your text….Jesus having absorbed our sins through a cross of judgement………….strikes to the core of my being…….

Over the past few months the Power of the Resurrection is more and more being imprinted in my heart. I think it started for me “unconsciously”.! Haha! Growing old is not for the faint hearted:)!

From Fri.-Mon. I care for a 89yo Catholic woman with dementia. I’ll call her Anne. Anne’s caregiver for the other days of the week has started putting a large Catholic cross with Jesus hanging on it on Anne’s bedside table. When I come to work on Fridays I see it and automatically put the cross in the drawer. It really annoys me to see the cross like that. So much so that I had to stop and really take notice. Why does Jesus hanging on the cross annoy me so much? After all He did die and suffer on the cross for the sins of the world.

I discovered that image denies the resurrection. It eternally leaves him hanging on the cross. Which is a diabolical lie! Because they took him down from the cross and laid His broken body in the tomb. And on the third day He rose again. The cross is empty and so is the tomb because He’s Alive!! Christ is Risen!!!!

For if the dead are not raised , then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised your faith is futile, you are still in your sins…..If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
BUT CHRIST HAS INDEED BEEN RAISED FROM THE DEAD……1Cor 15:16-20

I have become friendly with Anne’s sons and daughters, two of whom are religious Catholics. The other caregiver is a Spanish catholic.The last four paragraphs or the lesson you gave are so powerful I am going to write them in my Bible to have with me when the opportunity again arises to talk of my faith to them.

I echo Nancy in saying. “Thanks for taking the time!”

Your photos are really great I really enjoy them, and I’m so glad for you all that David is back home. Heartfelt thanks to him for his service to our great country.

Happy belated Easter to you and Sandy and the family. Fancy we live, move and have our being in the Power of His Resurrection!!!